Teaching Paleontology in the 21st Century

stromatolite fossil

July 30 - August 3, 2009; optional field trip August 4

Cornell University and the Paleontological Research Institution

Applications for this workshop are closed.


Join us for an exciting collaborative effort focused on enhancing the teaching of paleontology at the undergraduate level. This workshop will bring together college and university faculty who teach paleontology to explore a wide variety of topics related to teaching paleontology effectively both in paleontology courses and as parts of other courses taught in the geoscience curriculum. Participants will share exemplary laboratory, classroom, museum, and field activities, discuss course content and curriculum, explore strategies for integrating paleontology concepts and activities across the curriculum, consider the challenges associated with teaching evolution, and address issues in teaching and learning paleontology concepts and processes.


This workshop is patterned after the very successful workshops on Teaching Mineralogy (1996), Teaching Petrology in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2003), Teaching Structural Geology in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2004), Teaching Hydrogeology in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2005), Teaching Sedimentary Geology in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2006), Teaching Geophysics in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2007), and Teaching Geomorphology in the 21st Century (On the Cutting Edge, 2008). Participants will help to develop an online collection of teaching materials related to paleontology similar to the ones developed for these other workshops. Instructional materials developed at the workshop will be reviewed, evaluated, and field-tested in classrooms by workshop participants.

Conveners:

  • Barbara Tewksbury (Hamilton College)
  • Warren Allmon (Paleontological Research Institute, Cornell University)
  • Rowan Lockwood (College of William and Mary)
  • Bruce MacFadden (Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida)
  • Peg Yacobucci (Bowling Green State University)

Go to workshop overview.



The workshop corner graphic shows Dalmanites limulurus. Image credit: Thomas Whiteley.

This workshop is part of the On the Cutting Edge professional development program for current and future geoscience faculty, sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation-Division of Undergraduate Education .


      Next Page »